224 Mr. J. Miers on the History of the ' Mate' Plant. 



they were able to export a considerable surplus above their own 

 requirements ; and they now made cotton cloths for their gar- 

 mentSj in lieu of the woollen ponchos obtained from Cordova. 

 The Dictator for many years was assiduous in his endeavours to 

 establish permanently this system of industry, which necessarily 

 supplanted in great measure the trade in Yerba ; he even employed 

 coercive measures in order to carry it into effect ; and in 1829 he 

 decreed that the possessor of every house or farm should sow a 

 certain quantity of maize, upon the product of which every one 

 was bound to contribute 4 per cent, to the state, no excuse being 

 allowed ; and those who sought to evade this obligation became 

 subject to heavy penalties. 



1 had many opportunities, during ray residence in Buenos 

 Ayres in 1825-1827, of conversing with several persons who had 

 been in Paraguay, but I never met with any one who had wit- 

 nessed the atrocities currently ascribed to the Dictator : from all 

 I could learn, I became convinced that the character so generally 

 assigned to Doctor Francia was not founded in truth, and that, 

 owing to political jealousy and personal dislike, he has been un- 

 justly maligned. He ought, on the contrary, to be looked upon 

 as a great benefactor to his country ; and though he had recourse 

 to a policy of restraint, which in a more advanced state of society 

 would not have been tolerated, it was certainly one well calcu- 

 lated, in the actual state of Paraguay, to attain the objects he 

 had so much at heart, and in which he gradually succeeded. 

 The good results of these wise measures are well attested by the 

 prosperous advancement of the country up to the present time. 

 His success naturally raised up against him a host of irreconcile- 

 able enemies in all the Argentine Provinces, who strove to blacken 

 his character and vilify his conduct. All these Provinces, suf- 

 fering under the extinction of the trade in Yerba, were leagued 

 against the policy of Francia ; but their attention being too 

 much occupied in their constant internecine wars, they had little 

 time or force to spare in the attempt to revolutionize Paraguay. 

 At length, however, the Go vernor-in- chief of Entrerios, having 

 made peace with the other provinces, turned his attention to that 

 object, and endeavoured at the same time to establish settlements 

 at the former Jesuit Missions (then almost depopulated), with 

 the view of cultivating the trade in Yerba. And we now come 

 to a knowledge of the state of affairs that existed when the 

 celebrated Bonpland visited the River Plate, and how the sub- 

 sequent phases of his life became connected with the history of 

 the trade in Yerba. 



The fall of the emperor Napoleon and the re-establishment 

 of the Bourbon dynasty in France were events most galling to 

 Bonpland, and be resolved to seek an abode in one of the repub- 



